Terrestrial digital television will progressively replace analogue television. One of the major issues of this transition is that of offering quality reception, even inside houses or apartments. This issue involves constraints on the size of the receiving antenna which has to be relatively compact and lightweight. Moreover, the standard used within the framework of terrestrial digital television is, in Europe, the DVB-T standard. This standard provides for the use of all the channels in the UHF band, namely the band lying between 470 MHz and 862 MHz.
Consequently, the antenna used for terrestrial digital television should have good performance over a broad band of frequencies. The constraints mentioned above naturally steer the choice of radiating element towards a travelling wave antenna. Numerous conceivable topologies exist in the known art. Thus, the antenna may be a Vivaldi, type antenna or a printed spiral antenna, etc.
However, within the framework of a broadband antenna for digital television, it may be preferable to have an antenna exhibiting an omnidirectional radiation pattern, with vertical polarization. Broadband antennas meeting these constraints currently exist on the market. Such antennas are in particular formed of a monopole of conical shape. Although these antennas allow operation over a frequency band corresponding to the UHF range, they nevertheless have the drawback of being relatively heavy since the radiating element is usually made as a single metal element. They are also relatively bulky.